My SPS corals keep dying

[educom]

I have a 75G reef tank almost 3 years old now. Throughout this time every one of my many soft corals flourish and split at fantastic rates. However, for some unknown reason I can't keep any (not one) SPS corals to live more than about a month or two. Over the past few years I've had probably 2 bird's nest, a few digitata, and 2 brains all die, as well as a few other SPS' that didn't make it. I've had a montipora for about a month now, and it's already getting discolored around the edges. Does anybody have any idea why the SPS' won't survive but my soft corals thrive? I'm stumped. Any insight would be appreciated.

Scott

 

[allsps40]

If you have a lot of soft corals it can be a problem for sps. Need more info, lighting, filtration and full water test will help.

 

[fq600]

Do you run active carbon? Im guessing chemical released by soft coral may prevent SPS from growing in your tank.

But again, many here will ask you for more info about your tank. Alk, Ca, Mag? List all the info you can and hopefully some1 here can give you much more useful info that what I wrote here.

 

[JamesJR]

IME, most of the hardier sps corals can do fine with soft corals so I wouldn't jump and say that it is chemical warfare. It is really hard to know what the issue is because soft corals can thrive in conditions that would kill most sps. You really need to give us a detailed run down of your tank equipment, water parameters and maintenance schedule.

 

[allsps40]

Thus the need for more info on the tank and a full water test.

 

[educom]

Measurements taken today. Nitrates=0, Calcium=350, PH=8.0-8.2, Alk=8 dKH, and PO4=0. Strontium is just barely in range. Iodide in range. Iodate not measurable. Ran out of Magnesium test kit. Running (8) T-5's @54W each. Replaced the (4) 10K whites on June 23 and the (4) Actinics on April 1.

Last 20% water change performed on August 5 with plans to change out again tomorrow. I typically do a 20% water change every 5 weeks. I change the active carbon and the GFO at water change.

I have to manually dose for calcium and alkalinity. I'm usually pretty good at keeping the calcium around 400 so the 350 measurement today was surprising. I struggle sometimes with keeping the alkalinity consistent. It used to drop to 6 pretty regularly, but I try to keep it between 7-8. I increased my dosing frequency a couple months ago to try to get it within a tighter range. It's much better but could still be improved because I still fall to 6 every now and then.

I have a 20 gallon fuge with a deep sand bed, some live rock, and my chaetomorpha grows wonderful in there. I also use the fuge to harvest copepods and brine shrimp eggs to feed the Mandarin Goby. I add Phyto Plankton twice a week in accordance with the instructions.

What other information is needed?

 

[NYCBOB]

why dont u try some aquacultured sps frags. they r hardier than wild caught sps.

 

[Achilles18]

i've been into hobby for sw almost 10 yrs now & i know it suck if you loose or die one of your livestock & some it will thrive in your tank. to be honest with you for the past month i've got ick outbreak problem in my tank i've lost 4 of my barlett anthias as well my achilles & some of my sps colony just bleached out that hurts your wallet though. asked me what's the causes of this mistake it's my skimmer didn't really work properly i'd thought it was skimming properly but what i noticed some of my corals gone brown out & ofcourse nitrate got really high. i hate to say this i bought this crappy skimmer for a 50 bucks it wasn't good enough to handle my 110g, i guess this what the outcome for being cheaper guy like me anyway. your calcium is too low you gotta keep it up a bit somewhere 400 to 450 your alk is ok remember sps corals needs a lot of calcium & ofcourse a proper light i'm using 8 bulbs t5 now currently running bubble magus skimmer, running biopellets & phosreactor, carbon as well letting you know softy's they aren't that sensitive like sps corals as far as what my experience having with sps reef tank it's a big challenge remember your creating your own enviroment in your tank & you gotta make sure all your parameter it's in right level i hope i can help a bit goodluck!

 

[educom]

Hey Achilles, when I first setup my tank I had a crappy skimmer as well. I was always fighting cyano due to the high phosphates. The guy at the LFS sold me a much more robust skimmer about 6-8 months ago. He also suggested upgrading to dual cannisters for the GFO and the active carbon. Prior to that I would occasionally run carbon in a bag, and my GFO reactor was undersized as well. Anyway, within 2-3 weeks of these upgrades the cyano disappeared and my tank looks better now than it's ever looked.

After the upgrades I then waited for six months to let the tank settle before I tried some SPS' again. Three weeks ago I purchased 2 digitatas and a bird's nest that have all died within the last couple days, so something clearly still isn't right. I really don't think it's the skimmer, and as I mentioned in my last post, I'm pretty good at keeping the calcium in the 400's. The drop to 350 was a very rare exception.

I hardly ever test the strontium, iodine, or magnesium levels, and I don't use any type of supplements for these either. Could this be the problem? The guy at the LFS suggested more frequent water changes, like maybe instead of doing 20% every 5 weeks, change out 10% every 2 weeks. I'm going to start that after this next water change tomorrow.

NYCBOB, I may try some aqua cultured frags. Thanks for the suggestion. I've never purchase corals online, but I see where www.liveaquaria.com has a nice selection. Do you know of others?

I appreciate the input, and would gladly welcome the expertise of others. Although I'm approaching my third year, sometimes I still feel like a novice. I'm learning that there's always more to learn when it comes to reef tanks;-)

 

[educom]

One more thought. What about water circulation? Do SPS' require higher circulation than soft corals? When I purchased these last 3 SPS' I placed them in an area with good circulation thinking that may be the problem ... but still no luck.

 

[dzhuo]

A few random notes so far:

1. Your alk (and potentially cal and mag) might be way off. If you never been able to keep any SPS for long and yet you mention your alk would regularly drop to 6 dKH which seems unusual given the low calcification demand. Unless you have an insane amount of coralline algae or your salt is very low in alk to begin with, I don't think alk would drop like that regularly. What test kits and salt do you use? How old are the test kits?

2. In your previous post, you listed iodine and strontium concentration. Why? Do you dose any of them? If not, what makes think you would test it?

3. Your N & P are most likely not 0.

4. 20% water change every 5 months is a little on the low side. I would up that to roughly 10% to 15% bi-weekly especially your tank is mostly softy dominated.

5. How much flow do you have?

6. When you say the SPS die, how do they die? Do they STN from the bottom up or start with burning tips from the top?

7. What softy do you keep in your tank? The general hobbyist names are enough.

 

[allsps40]

I agree you need to keep the tank a lot more stable. Swings in alk are a big stresser for sps. You need a low range po4 kit, Hanna is then only good one. You need to increase your water changes and go them more regularly, 20% every 5 weeks wow. I do 10-15% weekly. Yes sps need a lot more flow than softies do. To keep alk and ca stable I recommend getting an ATO and dosing kalk, this works great for me.

 

[FinancialReef]

Agreed on the more frequent water changes. Also need to test mg levels as it reacts with the ca and the alk.